THE PRICE OF BEER IN DUNEDIN.

Globe, Volume XXII, Issue 2068, 9 October 1880, Page 3

THE PRICE OF BEER IN DUNEDIN.

The "Otago Daily Tim a’ aaks how it is that, just when the brewers and publicans are subjected to a tax of threepence a gallon on bear, r.he p ica of a glass of beer has been reduced in Dunedin from sixpence to threepence ? “Of the fact the public are assured by large placards, and if it stood alone we should suppose that the retailers were determined to make up for diminished profits by encouraging a larger trade. We are told that the re duction is not so large as it look*, as anyone could always got a pint of “ colonial ” for his sixpence if he liked. But the drinking capacity of most people does not extend to a pint at a draught, and we suspect more glasses than pints were sold for sixpence. Admitting that the concession is an important one, then what does it mean? Wo should rejeioa at it if its effect was likely to be the extensive substitution of colonial beer as a universal beverage for bad spirits. We cannot help thinking this would be an improvement, just as a Chinaman is a step in advance between ft negro and a white man. But at the same moment we hear of “drinks” of all kinds being reduced in some houses to fourpence, and this really intimates something serious in the condition of things. Can it bo that the demand for intoxicating drink doe* not keep pace with the supply. Is Othello’s occupation gone ? Of all the melancholy signs of bad times this is surely one of the most moloncholy. Not only are wo lj££K all prospect of “drinking ourselves out ol kiebt ” as a State, but the condition of a large and time-honored “ local industry ” is in jeopard*. Thus, satirically inclined, our contemporary concludes by expressing opinion that the drinkseller has few friends, and that those who use him most will most abuse him. “ We cannot help having a feeling that it is one compensation for reduced wages and want of employment that less is spent in drink. This is another of the ‘sweet uses of adversity.’ And if threepenny ‘ beers ’ are one of the enforced necessities of the times, the public will not be inclined to grumble that they can obtain a very mild stimulant at one half the price which they have hitherto had to pay for ib We should like to see the price of the more spirituous stimulants kept up, and that of good wholesome beer kept down.”